I want you to listen to something the sound of fireworks but let's take away the lines for
now the sound seems pretty normal and familiar but after hearing it for a while the sporadic
bursts and crackling combustions begin to form an invisible nuisance what if I asked you to listen
to this for an hour a day or a week everywhere you went to and even when you had to go to sleep
forced to even find it in your dreams it would become unbearable and exhausting how would you
be able to go about your day your normal tasks and interactions would be greatly affected it's
as if you're living in a disorienting reality apart from everyone else always on edge at the
mercy of the next destabilizing pop hoping for a moment of silence while preparing to make the film
you were never really here director Lyn Ramsey gave a recording of fireworks to hen Phoenix to
prepare him for his role it's an interesting way to introduce someone to the mindset of a
person afflicted by by a traumatic event trauma is a Relentless and constant assailant that can
intrude in all aspects of a person's life it's an invisible aggressor with the power of reminding
you that it can break you whenever it wants and that even time has difficulty of silencing
it so how do you show something that likes to remain hidden like trauma in today's video we
will examine how Lyn Ramsey manages to portray a character suffering from PTSD without addressing
it it's done you were never really here is a surreal and lean character study that succeeds
in giving us access to the broken mind of Joe a war veteran turned Hammer wielding Hitman that
saves girls from the seedy underworld of child prostitution an imposing Beast of a man heavily
masking his past traumas he's been recently hired by a senator to find his kidna daughter
Nina clear said you were brutal I can be when we first meet Joe he's presented to us in pieces his
face deformed under a plastic bag his younger self his hands a string of tightly shot questionable
actions his lower body moving out of a room his PO avoiding being seen his silhouette exiting
a hotel and his features being obscured by his hood and the Darkness of the night in the alley
it mirrors how throughout the movie we never get a full picture of who Joe is or any of the other
characters we only get fragments ly Ramsey has a measured approach to handing out information like
a faint trail of breadcrumbs little by little the pictures and The Limited dialogue gives us only a
need to know basis of the character's background and the relationships with each other ultimately
forming a puzzle with lost pieces even the action follows this pattern by hiding the violence and
focusing on the brutal aftermath which parallels Joe he's a walking aftermath of trauma the Curious
thing is that we never have the main character come out and say it he never mentions it to anyone
and it never comes up from any other character nor does anyone seem to be aware of it what ramsy does
is show us the scars and the alarming actions we only catch glimpses of how he got this way
but we are withheld in explanation it causes us to pay attention to the visual language she uses
so we can fill in the blanks ourselves usually the easiest way to show someone dealing with
trauma would be to have them verbalize it but that wouldn't be realistic people don't just willfully
say they have a problem sure we see it in movies all the time for dramatic effects and to advance
the plot but most people are bad at communicating especially about things they're not ready to come
to terms with most of the time people won't even admit to themselves that something isn't right
or that they need help especially someone that's emotionally ill equipped like Joe they might lack
the tools necessary to exteriorize it and if they did they might be afraid of being
judged or feel ashamed to share something so intimate as I don't want to be here anymore
Joe for Joe this feeling is a daily struggle inin Ramsey does a great job of showing how routine
it is in his life she has a very particular way of representing it on the script interior Joe's
bedroom mother's house day Joe sits upright on a chair that he's dragged into an open doorway of
the walk-in cupboard dry cleaning covers hang by his head close on Joe's feet his shoelaces
are untied he uses one foot to leave her off his shoe he places one socked foot onto the
floorboards ahead of him the floorboard creaks as he places his weight a bare patch of skin above
Joe's sock reveals an old but pronounced scar Joe has a belt looped around his neck the end
of the belt is looped over a clothing rail he pulls tightly on the Belt this alarming
description starts in a very mundane Way We Begin picturing Joe sitting down at an open doorway so
far it's okay she mentions the dry clean covers hanging by his head still normal Ramsay details
his feet the floorboards a scar this could all be descriptive information but then she inadvertently
reveals Joe has a belt looped around his neck she purposely lets us know the most important
part of the scene at the end and in the following exerpt as well interior Joe's bedroom mother's
house later Joe sits on the edge of a bed he's wearing jeans and a sleeveless t-shirt his hands
wrapped around his own neck pressure applied to his throat his face beat red she starts by
presenting the idle aspects of the scene burying the lead with how Joe is currently suffocating
himself and it's done in a cold mechanical way without urgency or buildup this word placement
is meant for you to imagine the jarring bit of information last because in this situation the
fact the character is committing self harm is treated like an afterthought the closet Scene
goes unaddressed and it's followed by a tender yet uneventful moment late afternoon sun Joe and
his mother are sat across the corner of the dining table open front of them is a large
mahogany cuddler case they are both engrossed in polishing its contents Joe's mother sings
A You're Adorable as the clean they both sing out each letter of the alphabet the tonal shift
creates a contrast that feels out of place but the character both scenes are ordinary because this is
his reality it's like walking a constant tight RPP you have moments where the traumatic noise
can be faint and others where it's completely unbearable but the thoughts are always there
the most significant manner the director shows the Affliction of trauma is how the narrative is
tailor made to the main character psyche we get to be inside of Joe's fractured mind we see how
he struggles to make sense of his reality because he's living simultaneously in the past and in the
present his body is here but at any second he can be brought back into a moment of trauma and
anything can set him off like tapping on the steering wheel of a car randomly being asked
to take a picture or just staring into empty space a look a feeling a smell or a sound can
immediately transform him into a helpless child these invasive Memories disorient the character
and the soundtrack follows his instability we can notice the background music unusually
skipping time and stopping when Joe manages to save Nina we hear a stable and even calming
tone it's light warm and reassuring but it erupts into a broken mess once she's taken away from him
it's a cacophony of sound and emotion obviously a kid that grew up with a lot of trauma and um
always felt that he couldn't protect himself or others so there's um obviously this need
as you grow older to become as powerful as you possibly could right and yet when we meet him
these are in the uh his kind of later days in he's middle-aged and so a lot of that has gone
away at the end of the movie Joe reaches the Mansion where nah is being kept hammering hand
he quickly brings down all the security detail off screen and makes his way to her room as he
enters for the final confrontation he finds the villain is already dead and Nina is nowhere to
be seen we cut back to Joe the shock Fades from his face and gives way to a gamut of
emotions he laughs he cries he's full of rap AG he's exhausted he falls apart there is nothing
left of Joe his internal taunts are revived at a deafening volume Nina didn't need his protection
he couldn't save his mother his employer the girls in the truck the girl in the desert he
couldn't help any of them he surrenders to the murky depths of his mind no matter the effort
no matter the progress he keeps getting pulled under we see the thin barrier holding the past
in the present he rode he can no longer disting distinguish between them because they both feel
painfully real he finds himself opening doors to Old Wounds reminding him of one thing he's
powerless he's still that defenseless boy from so many years ago Joe wanted to be the hero he wanted
to save the girl he wanted to have the climactic boss fight and maybe go out in the blaze of glory
but Lyn Ramsey's focus is not on the hero aspect this story isn't about getting revenge it's about
the Unseen constant struggle with an overpowering internal threat that distorts you from the inside
out you see this is the story about an exhausted man trying to find a reason to stay it's okay
Joe it's okay thank you for taking the time to watch our video we invite
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time